So, this chapter.. yeah, it took a while. I'm still not to happy with it.

Also, how a certain character is portrayed in here, is because I had to stay true to the original story this idea came from. I wouldn't have him act this way in other fan fics.

Hope you can help edit a little.

While the guys were with Leo, Splinter had tracked where he entered the sewer. When he found it. he waited. A figure comes out of the manhole and enters the truck. It's too dark to tell, even for rat eyes. The truck started down the road again. He stays on the rooftops, tracking them back to the apartment. He watches it park next to a apartment building. He hadn't seen Leo yet after all these years, so he is shocked when he watches him exit the car.

The former slave stands tall, his body ripples with strong muscles. Against his shell, he has a pair of katanas. Splinter wrinkles his rat nose at this. 'So, she trained him to be a ninja.. but underneath it all, he's still a boy.' Splinter watches Leo climb the fire escape and slip into a window on the fourth floor. 'Slave.'

"So, what did you guys talk about?" Splinter catches Heather's words through the open window.

"Everything we haven't said over Skype. I'm really glad I got to be by them again," Leo says, sounding genuinely happy. Splinter finds his way stealthily to the open window, staying out of sight. He looks inside. It's furnished well, with a couch, table, chairs, and a tv. There is a kitchen too, with a hallway going to the left.

"Getting tired?" Heather asks as Leo suddenly yawns.

"Yeah, I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."

"Goodnight," Heather calls. Splinter watches Leo walk into the hallway. A moment later, a light turns on in the window to Splinter's left. He gets to that ledge and looks inside. Leo's room is decked out with Japanese decorations. Leo sits on the bed and takes off his sheaths. He grabs the hilt of a katana and draws it out. He stares at it, smiling.

He puts it on the sword display and brings the other to join it. The ninja gear is stored in the top drawer. Then he changes out of his gi trousers and into a pair of pajamas. Then he finally sits back on the bed. Slowly, he unties the blue bandana around his eyes and lays it to rest on his night side table. He turns off the lamp and goes to sleep.

'Spoiled boy. He doesn't deserve any of this.' Splinter looks around the darkened room, seeing how the furniture is more expensive than what he can afford for his boys. 'Spoiled slave..'

Leo settles down into his bed. It's been a relatively short day and he is ready to go to sleep. He closes his eyes and drifts off into that peaceful place called unconsciousness.

"Wake up." He rolls over and exhales against the wall. "I said wake up, slave." That triggers something in Leo's mind. Heather never called him that. No one called him that.

'Except-' Leo opens his eyes and sits up. Splinter is standing a few feet away from him.

"Worthless," Splinter says, shaking his head. Leo looks around the room. There are no windows. The walls are made of stone and the door is metal. Leo is on the floor, also made of uneven stones. And there, on his foot, is a shackle. He stares at it, then at Splinter. One thought goes through his mind.

It's just a dream. This isn't really happening. It has been years since he's had a nightmare, but it can still happen. He doesn't have to be afraid. He sits up and crosses his legs. "Hello Splinter," he says.

"You are not allowed to talk to me!" The rat yells. Leo just looks at him. "Aren't you scared of me, slave!?"

Leo opens his beak and answers, "No." Splinter stares at him and then smirks.

"You think you're dreaming," he says, like it's cute and yet, not true. Leo focuses his mind and doesn't allow him to sway his thoughts.

"I am," he says, "And soon, I'll wake up and I'll never have to see you again." Splinter whirls and is soon right in Leo's face.

"Does this feel like a dream?" He slaps Leo across the mouth. It stuns him. In his dreams, he was ridiculed, he was taunted, he was insulted, but for some reason, Dream Splinter never hit him. And this time, he had.

"I refuse to believe it," Leo says. Splinter kicks him against the wall.

"How about now?" Leo groans, but bites the bullet. He doesn't have to talk to a nightmare. "You think this is who you are?" Splinter asks, holding up the turtle's gear. "This is worn by a trained ninja! You are nothing more than a slave boy in a ninja mask!"

Leo looks up at him. "There is nothing you can say that will make me believe that you aren't really here." Splinter drops the leather.

"You fear me, I know you do. That's why Heather didn't want me to be around when you met with my sons."

Leo stops. Then he goes back. Heather said that? She requested that Splinter not be there? That's a fact that Heather didn't share with him. "I want to wake up now.." he mumbles to himself.

"You are awake, Leonardo," Splinter says, "You aren't going back to Heather. You belong here, with that." The rat points to the chain on Leo's leg.

Leo stares at Splinter. He feels a creeping feeling swell in him; Fear. Splinter sees it and smiles, content that it worked.

"You can't escape. Even if you could use those katana. You don't have them." He walks away from Leo, to the door.

"..I.. I won't listen to you anymore. I am not a slave."

"Heather may have told you differently, but that shows how much she knows." Leo doesn't have the courage to say anything more. Splinter leaves him alone, without anything to eat.

Heather woke up the next day and immediately felt something off. Leo is usually up first. If he isn't in the kitchen, or dining room eating, then he would have found a spot in the living room to meditate. But he isn't anywhere to be found in the apartment.

At first, she doesn't panic. She just takes out her phone and dials his number. He was given a phone of his own, incase he was in trouble. She waits. It goes off in the other room. She follows it to his room. There is barely anything off. His bed is unmade, which is a little strange. His gear isn't in a pile like it would be at night, so he could be out.

The strange thing is his katanas are still sitting there. And what makes it finally click in Heather's mind, is the torn cotton on the floor. She looks at it and sees a little blood, like what ever did it couldn't care for the person underneath.

'Splinter.' Heather looks up at the window. It's open. She stands up and clutches the air inside her fist, squeezing every last drop out. Then, she walks out her door to her room. She dons her uniform, placing her shield on her back. She takes out Leo's spare sheaths, in the bottom drawer, and put his katanas in them. They go in the hollow spot between her shield and back.

Then the computer starts beeping. She walks over to it and answers. Splinter fills the screen. "I see you already know."

Heather doesn't hold back. "YOU MONSTER! YOU..YOU ANIMAL! YOU CAN'T JUST EXPECT HIM TO REVERT BACK TO WHAT HE WAS BEFORE! He isn't scared of you anymore."

Splinter chuckles, "We both know that isn't true." Heather is bristling, but she knows he is right. Leo is scared. Maybe scared enough to do whatever he says as long as he doesn't get hurt. "Now, don't try to come down to save him. If you do, I don't really need him. I just what him to know his place. But if you really don't want him to live that life, I'll end it for him."

Heather stares at him with more fury.

"It's your choice." The computer goes black. Heather wants nothing more to rush to the sewers and get Leo, and probably his brothers, away from that rat. But she can't. He will know, somehow, that she's coming and Leo will be dead before she gets there.

'But he needs his swords.' She looks around, then gets an idea. Donnie said something about a, t-phone. She looks through her contacts and finds Donnie's name.

=Hello?=

"Donnie, it's Heather."

Donnie sighs, =Mikey, I'm too busy for one of your prank calls= Heather looks at her phone in curiousness.

"Uh, Don? It's Heather."

=You are in your room, aren't you Mikey? At least you better be when I get there= She waits until there is a door that slams. =Sorry Heather, sensei was nearby. What is it?=

"I think Leo is at the Lair."

=Yeah, he is. Dad won't let us see him. And I overheard your conversation. What do we do?=

"Can Raph slip out of the Lair and come to meet me?" Heather asks.

=...What for?=

"I need to get Leo his swords, but can't come down myself."

=Okay. Wait, what if Raph can't get his swords to him?=

"... It's a step." They hang up and Heather gets out of her gear. She keeps the swords with her, and walks down to the manhole they picked. Raph is there. She hands him the swords. "Get these to him. They can help."

"Against sensei?"

"Against his fear." Raph nods and disappears.

SO CLOSE TO THE END! I CAN FEEL IT! CAN YOU!?

I'm having some trouble thinking of the end result. (Duh, there will be a fight. Duh, a certain you-know-who, different from mentioned above, is going to win. But what will happen next? Does someone die? Do they live somewhere else? Does someone get kicked out?) I have no clue yet..

..Help..